So, we’ve watched the troubles grow daily in America, as those who worry about their own security react to the ever-increasing understanding of the scope the NSA’s intel program has become known. Now, maybe you thought that was unusual, that the NSA would be gathering intelligence, but that’s what they do. It’s their reason for existence. Remember how upset we weren’t — but how upset our allies were — when they came to understand they were being spied upon? As if they knew it wasn’t happening. Of course, “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.” To which I’ll only add that gentlemen do not Tell The World that they read each other’s mail. Of course we spy on our allies. That’s how we KNOW they’re still our allies. “Gosh, it just never occurred to us” is not what I want to hear from my security team, how about you? I want them to know everything important Before It Happens. The way you do that is to know everything. Period.
Now then. From my experience, there is always going to be a disconnect between what we say and what we do, and in a democratic republic that’s hard to accept when it comes from your government. On a personal level, I expect you to be honest with me and I imagine you have similar expectations about me. When we trust each other, things work out well. When someone says one thing and does another, things go downhill quickly, don’t they? And that’s almost what we’re reading about these days. It’s more troublesome than that. We’ve been horns-waggled into believing that we could trust our government. You can’t do that. You elect them, but you don’t trust them without verification. How do you verify what they hide from you? (for your own good, of course) “You can’t handle the truth!”

Best brain organizer I've ever seen that works like I think, doesn't try to do everything, does very well what it does, has an amazingly responsive tech support team, and most importantly to me, runs on everything I own. Oh, and it's free to try in limited scope (5 projects) good forever, and a 60 day return policy for paying customers. Please note that I am an affiliate of Nozbe, and should you choose to become a customer, I will get paid a little– if enough others also purchase. If you decide to try it, all links in this article are tagged with my affiliation. Chop off the ending “a-k…” part if you don't want them to know where you came from. Understand, I don't think this is a good application because they pay me. It's a great application in my book, -and- they say they'll pay me.

It's a todo list manager at first glance. I suggest you look a little deeper.

Nozbe has a web-based component, so it runs on any browser if you're connected. If you're not connected at the moment–like my wifi iPad when I'm on the road, then the Nozbe app (not the web page) loads whatever it last knew about and goes from there. When you're connected again, it syncs.

There are native apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and android right now and I think ones are in the works for BB and the Windows phone. So far, they all seem to have the same look and feel, so my head doesn't explode when I move from one to another. That was the closer for me. I've found some interesting todo managers on Windows, and some on iOS but this is the one best choice for me that works everywhere. In this interconnected world, having an application that isn't interoperable is a waste of our time. It used to be that the adage was “Find the software that does what you want, then go buy the hardware it runs on.” That was in the good old days of pdp-11s and Commodore 64s and Apple II and TRS Model One and all those other platforms we've all forgotten about long ago. Now there's PC and Mac, iOS and android, with blackberry out there somewhere in the smog of business, not to be forgotten. If your app doesn't embrace all these then go away, you're just wasting my time.

What does it do? It keeps your life in order, if you let it, if you want order. It uses a system based on David Allen's book Getting Things Done. Go read that book for an understanding of the concepts Allen presents. One of his points is that we need a trusted system where we can deposit thoughts, knowing that they will be there when we want to retrieve them for further consideration. Most folks use their brain as that trusted system, but Allem says that our brain is made for thinking, not for storing. Hence, to-do lists. We can't remember it all, so we write it down. And lose it. And forget it. And still can't decide what to do next. Nozbe is a multi-platform trusted system for individuals and groups.

Why should I care? If you're frustrated not being able to remember everything, and act on the most important things–as you define them–then I think this software will help you do that while not requiring you to mold your life around a computer program. This is a helpful way to manage your Important, Urgent, items in your life.

Michael Hyatt (go find his blog at MichaelHyatt.com) has said it's the only task management program he can recommend.

It's for sale, certainly the author wants to be paid, but there is a free version as well. If you sign up for the free version you can enjoy all the features of the paid version for up to five projects.

A while back I was reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which is a masterwork for those of us who think we have too much to do. You should read it, or <jab elbow into ribs here> at least put it on your ToDo List. (Laugh? I thought I’d die.) Anyhow, the concept has several steps, but the one that matters most to me is the idea of getting things out of my head and into what Allen calls a trusted system. That’s something, anything that you know won’t lose that great idea you just had, when you don’t have any more room in your brain for One More Thing.

I joke a lot about having to choose something to forget when I’m asked to remember something new, since I’m full to the brim in my brain…at least I think so.

But I have found a tool, and I’ll tell you about it next time. It’s Nozbe.

I gave up on Microsoft Office when I discovered I couldn't use it on Linux, so I switched to Libreoffice. It's free, open source, and works fine. Libreoffice runs on Windows and Linux just the same, so it's easy to use when I switch from one to the other. Why switch from one to the other? Pure curiosity. Been tempted by the Linux bug for at least ten years, but until recently I was too timid to try it. I didn't want to ruin my computer if I made a disaster out of the installation. But, as time passes, some things surrender to entropy, but software generally gets better. Linux certainly got better over time. Nowadays it's easy to do a Linux install right along with Windows and not lose anything but a little free space on your hard drive. In fact, you can run the more popular flavor of Linux from a CD or thumb drive and get the feel of it before you do anything rash to your computer at all. If you decide to do it, you can install Linux directly from that cd or thumb drive. These days I'm using a distribution of Linux called Mint. Works well, seems like fun. Much faster everything than windows7. Developing, as they say on Drudge.